ILTA Webinar, May 6, 2013

ENHANCING YOUR TIME ENTRY PROCESS WITH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

Keith Cameron @ Houston Harbaugh

Laura Snyder @ Ward & Smith

John Kuntz @ Bellefield

ILTA Webinar, May 6, 2013

Changing Behavior In A Law Firm

One Firm’s Experience

Keith Cameron

CHANGING BEHAVIOR IN A LAW FIRM: ONE FIRM’S EXPERIENCE

CONTEXT

 

• Law firm of 36 attorneys: 18 shareholders, 18 associates

• One office (located in Pittsburgh, PA)

• Full service practice

• Management approach:

• Open to consider change• Chief Operating Officer’s primary mission: increase net

income per shareholder

THE PROCESS• 2005-2006: early news of the benefits of attorneys entering their own

time

• Catalyst: key shareholder willing to champion idea of attorneys entering their own time

• January 2007: announced two-month pilot program on voluntary basis with small financial incentive

• 15 attorneys joined the pilot (6 shareholders) for the training and doing the time entry themselves for two months.

• No one stopped during the pilot

• All continued to use the time entry program at the end of the pilot

• July 2007: shareholders in the pilot convinced the other shareholders to adopt a policy for all attorneys (and paralegals) to enter their own time

• July 2007-present: every attorney (but 1) has entered her or his own time.

MOST SIGNFICANT BENEFITS

• Accuracy

• Secretarial ratio change: each secretary available to add 1 additional timekeeper.

• Bills prepared more quickly (fewer corrections)

• Increased capture of time resulting in increased net income per shareholder

INCREASE NET INCOME PER SHAREHOLDER• Pre- and post- test during the pilot: 5% gain in time

capture (1.6 hours/week)

• Sustained: 2-3% gain in time capture

• Sample: Benefit for a law firm with 30 attorneys who average 140 hours/month and an average billing rate of $250/hour, a 2% gain in time capture would be the equivalent of adding client revenue of $1 million with no extra clients and no extra work.

• Large payoff for a change in behavior.

MOBILITY• 2013: PILOT TESTING itimekeep SOFTWARE WITH FIVE

ATTORNEYS

• Relatively easy to learn, easy to administer and easy to use

• Expected results from the pilot:

• Even more accurate time entry when attorneys are out of the office working

• More efficient time entry for the attorneys in using the voice-to-text feature

• A large percentage of our attorneys will want to use it

ILTA Webinar, May 6, 2013

WARD AND SMITH, P.A.

Mobile Time Entry Strategy

Laura Snyder

EMBRACING MOBILITY

Free, Flexible, and Untethered

Free, Flexible, and Untethered

OUR MOBILE STRATEGY

www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/6475530771 Used Under Creative Commons License

Conquering Mobility

Enforced – No Delinquency Policy

FOCUSING ON TIME ENTRY

www.flickr.com/photos/zoutedrop/2317065892 Used Under Creative Commons License

Our Culture

Access Anywhere, Anytime

GOING MOBILE

The Logical Next Step

www.flickr.com/photos/nnova/2301978120 Used Under Creative Commons License

Our goal was to provide our attorneys with the flexibility to enter time anywhere, anytime, without the burden of utilizing citrix when outside of the office

User Friendly and Easy to Use

EXPECTATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS

www.flickr.com/photos/bobhasmadskills/343149014 Used Under Creative Commons License

Presenting the Possibilities

EDUCATING OUR ATTORNEYS

www.flickr.com/photos/amslerpix/7959123252 Used Under Creative Commons License

ILTA Webinar, May 6, 2013

THE CASE FOR MOBILE TIME ENTRY

Gabriela Isturiz

WHY MOBILE TIME ENTRY ?

89% of the 1.3 million licensed attorneys in the United

States now use smartphones for out-of-the-office legal work

• 49% are iPhones• 31% are BlackBerrys • 17% are Android.

Mostly short activities (under 10 min) and likely to become “leaked time”

DRIVERSWHAT DRIVE FIRMS TO CONSIDER MOBILE TIME ENTRY?

1. Compliance with Firm’s Time Entry Policies

2. Convenience

3. Accuracy / Predictability

4. Reduce Time Leakage

5. Part of our Mobile Strategy

CHALLENGES OF IMPLEMENTING A MOBILE TIME ENTRY SOLUTION

1. Attorneys are Technology Averse

2. They don’t even enter their own time

3. Security

4. Cost

5. We are not ready for that yet

OVERCOMINGYOUR MOBILE TIME ENTRY CHALLENGES

Challenge Focus On

Attorneys are Technology-Averse

Easy to use Intuitive + Minimum TrainingReliable

Attorneys don’t even enter their own time

Enable voice-to-textFalse premise? Breaking Bad Habits

Security Protect your client dataSecured and encrypted No data stored on device

Cost Cost is what you pay, Value is what you obtainBuild your own financial case

We are not ready yet We have become an app culture. The growth in smartphone usage is even more intense than the growth of the internet in the late 90’s

NOT READY YET?THINK AGAIN

• In an App culture, Mobility is growing at an unprecedented speed

• 70 billions apps downloaded in 2013 (10 apps per human in earth)• 800,000 apps Google Play/Android• 775,000 apps Apple iOS App Store• 125,000 apps Windows Phone Marketplace• 70,000 apps Blackberry World• (Source: ABI Research)

THE RESEARCHWHAT DO THE NUMBERS SAY?

90% Timecards entered within one day of work performed

90%

10%

Velocity (Time Gap)

Up to 1 Day More than 1 Day

THE RESEARCHWHAT DO THE NUMBERS SAY?

Strong Correlation between Time Velocity and Accuracy

While the work performed is fresh in the attorney’s mind, the more likely they are to record these single tasks. The longer it takes to record time, the bigger the time entries get (activities are cobbled together, accuracy decreases).

1 2 3 4 5

Velocity

Acc

urac

y

THE RESEARCHWHAT DO THE NUMBERS SAY?

1/3 of attorneysEnter 98% of their time via their tablet or smart-phone

5% of work done in weekendsAnd out of that, 95% entered on the same day

CONCLUSION• In an App culture, Mobility is growing at an unprecedented

speed

• Mobile Time Entry will soon become the preferred method for attorneys to enter their own time

• Challenges exist, but they are addressable. Today we heard two different approaches on how two firms overcame the challenges of mobile time entry and benefited from it

• Build your firm’s case